Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: June 29, 2009
Summary:
A UCSF study for the treatment of heart failure after heart attack found that the extract derived from bone marrow cells is as effective as therapy using bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, decreasing the formation of scar tissue and improving cardiac pumping capacity after heart attack. Findings were published online and in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy. The cover of the journal features a microscope image of cells from the UCSF study.
The studies were done in mice using a novel stem cell delivery method developed by UCSF researchers to show that the extract from bone marrow cells is as beneficial to cardiac function as are intact, whole cells. Both the cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death, or apoptosis, than no therapy. The study also showed that heart function benefitted despite the finding that few of the injected cells remained in the heart at one month after therapy.
In a related story, below is a video from CBS News about an experimental procedure using adult stem cells to repair heart attack damage:
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